UPDATE:  Edited title and parts of the story to indicate that this is not a full stage-3 trial, so the results are not yet guaranteed.

Anyone who has had a friend or relative slide into the bottomless pit of Alzheimers, never to return, will find this bit of news a bright spot for the future.  According to a story on the Daily Mail's website, there's a new daily medicine that may, according to a stage-2 drug trial, slow or totally halt the progression of Alzheimers.

I need a fix.  Do you?  
Let's have fun with critter pix, no politics, no whining.  

and write a letter to a soldier pretty please!

[cross posted at SanchoPRESS]

The caller wasn't coherent.

All I could gather was that he'd been to Iraq and now he thought he was going crazy. At first he wasn't talking about what was wrong with him, but what was wrong with his insurance coverage. He was rambling, yelling, cussing, crying. I thought he was a recent veteran, but then it sounded like he was still active duty. I couldn't tell if he was out of the military or still in it.

He wasn't able to answer my questions, so I let him vent for a while. When he stopped to breathe I asked: "you mean you're active duty, now? You're in the military?"

Well sir, right now I'm AWOL.

"Oh. Well, where are you?"

I'm in [state].

"Why did you go there?"

It's where my family is.

My insurance told me I won't be covered out-of-state unless I have an emergency. I don't have an emergency. If I can find a way back to [state] can I get into your place?

"Yes, probably. But tell me what's going on. What kind of problem are you having?"

I want to fucking die.

What I have here is a warning of the most dangerous predator of the human race.  

The most horrifying story across all history is not Satan or ghosts, not man's creative power to build monsters and plagues.  But that, in the day to day world, the person manipulating you with fear of the powers of Darkness, with the threat of nuclear annhilation and ecological catastrophe may have nothing of the trait most think defines us as human: absolutely no conscience.  

There are literally millions of anti-social personalities out there.  They are in our boardrooms, in the pulpit, in Washington. They may even be in our beds smiling back at us.

This is crossposted at:http://rayslemotjuste.blogspot.com/

Yesterday I wrote a blog about a young man with a serious brain injury who is slowly recovering at Palomar Medical Center.
Blue Cross California wanted to terminate his treatment and shunt him off to a nursing home, or send him home.

That diary sank without a trace, buried in a flood of opinion pieces about candidates, and that is sad. I was hoping that enough people would read it to make a noise that would cause Blue Cross to reverse its decision.

Well, so much for the power of the internet. Apparently Hillary and Obama are just so much more of a vital topic that everyone and their brother had to chip in their two cents.

Hardly anyone read it, and that is too bad, because this case pretty much outlines what we have to look forward to if certain pols get elected. Medicine by bureaucrats flying a desk, determining what course to take. I am disgusted, both by the lack of attention Scott Eveland's story got, and the treatment he's getting from Blue Cross California.

Original diary here:
http://www.dailykos.com/...

For starters, I thought I'd link to this piece in the Guardian UK that flawedplan at Writhe Safely found and commented on. This quote sums up the article:

There are clearly complex and multiple interactions between trauma and psychosis. It is exciting to see researchers from both biological and psychological disciplines joining forces to discover the specific mechanisms by which childhood abuse and other traumatic experiences lead to psychosis.

Because it always helps to get it off your chest; I thought it could be both therapeutic and entertaining to have a diary dedicated to rants only.  So, let her fly.  Be creative.  And, most importantly, feel better unloading your angst...  To get it started here's mine; below the fold.